"For an aristocrat, history is not only the past but also the future," that's how Vera Voss usually started her tutoring.

Many people find this science boring, some don't even think it's a science at all. But for her, analyzing dozens of sources and the discovery of truth were the most fascinating pursuits under the sun.

Vera gathered information all over the world: she consulted long-lived demigods, discussed history with centenarian church chroniclers, and even learned from magicless aborigines who deemed gods as parasites and were often attacked by the Churches.

Her unapologetic knowledge about this world was much appreciated among the nobility. It allowed her to rise to the top of the aristocrat's society in her twenties.

She gained fame for years to start working with aristocrats, and now her influence continued to grow exponentially. Essentially, Vera educated those who would lead this world in the future, so she thoroughly chose the most talented children from the most powerful families.

Her today's student was one of these chosen promising disciples to whom she transmitted her knowledge. His family had recently lost their patron god, and as a result, they had slightly diminished in influence. Yet, a few weeks ago, she had decided to have an exploratory meeting with him. Initially intended to last an hour, the conversation ended up lasting three times longer as they got carried away in their discussion.

Something about this boy hooked her. Vera Voss enjoyed conversations with this little aristocrat genuinely. He reminded her of her childhood self. At times, it was almost unbelievable that he had only recently turned five.

He didn't harbor any childish illusions about good and evil; he seemed to understand instinctively that the world is ruled by great benefit. Whatever is advantageous for the elites happens.

For the first time, she felt that she was not just educating an ordinary child; she had met a natural kindred soul, a genius akin to herself, someone she only needed to polish.

It is arrogant to believe that people who remind you of yourself are geniuses. And yet her arrogance was reasonable. She was the most prestigious and versed history tutor in the upper light. Besides that, at the age of twenty-six, she was also a beauty.

Just like herself, her appearance was extraordinary. She had pure white hair and the ruthless red eyes of a cat, which stood out vividly on her carefree face. Some of her students fell in love with her, but she never reciprocated those feelings.

The mansion of her today's student's family was situated in Metarit. This city had a rift node, most of whose dimensional passages led to the rifts located in the major cities of the Vital Church's domain.

The rift node was mostly used by the merchants to transport goods, which allowed Metarit to become the center of trade.

Though rich people could afford traveling through it. This allowed Vera to have many apprentices and teleport between the cities they lived in. Today, she used the rifts once again.

"Young lady, may I offer you a ride in a carriage?" said an old man. He was looking for wealthiest people among those who left the Nexar Hall, which was built around the rift node sometime in the past.

Vera ignored him, eager to take a walk around the city. The boy's family mansion was just half an hour away. The Nexar Hall was situated in the heart of the merchant district, though there were no markets around it. This part of the city stood out with perpetual moving carts and its multi-story stone warehouses which local enthusiasts loved to draw on at nights.

Every time she walked there, she chose a different route to explore new paintings. This time, it was the surrealistic image of a child with a demon inside she liked the most.

As she walked, the warehouses were replaced by the wooden mansions. Before, she didn't understand why nobles preferred their estates to be built of wood, despite the longevity and fire-resistant qualities of stone constructions. However, she quickly found a simple answer: prestige.

Stone buildings can be created relatively easily by using earth magic right on the spot, whereas to build a wooden one, you would need much more resources, time, and effort. As a result, wooden mansions end up being much more expensive, and it's this exclusivity that attracts aristocrats to them.

Sometimes Vera questioned why she wanted to get a room at the top. Why couldn't she stop gaining influence and leave this artsy noble society? Perhaps, she wanted to change it, educating those who will lead it in the future. Or maybe, it was just greed, pure and simple.

Metarit was nothing like other cities. Since it had a rift node in its center, sometimes it felt like it was twelve cities merged into one with twelve floors. Of course, only the richest perceived Metarit this way, as others couldn't afford traveling through the rifts often enough.

Moving away from the Nexar Hall, one would notice buildings getting more expensive and then, conversely, gradually cheaper.

Firstly, one would see huge and cheap stone warehouses, as the merchant district occupied the area right around the rift node. The fact that the city's center looked so tawdry felt wrong; that was the reason why local artists liked drawing on those grey and boring walls.

Continuing its movement, one would enter the noble area with its wooden architectural monuments. Young couples liked to have dates here, as this part of the city looked the most poetic.

Then one would see wooden mansions being replaced with the stone ones.

The outskirts were the biggest and the poorest part of the city. Stone boxes accommodated several families each, they were the only decoration of the landscape. Vera didn't like the outskirts; they somehow drained her will to live.

The other cities with rifts had the same layout.